Interest Age 9+ Reading Age 9 | In a nutshell: it’s only a rock’n’roll story but we like it! Part of dyslexia and reluctant reader specialist Barrington Stoke’s ‘super readable’ collection, Jonathan Mere’s novel will hit all the right notes with readers, male ones in particular. A meeting with this friend’s cool big brother Nigel (named after the XTC song) changes Darren’s life: he determines to become the best guitar player ever, just as soon as he’s persuaded his parents to buy him a guitar. Meres gives almost-eleven-year old Darren a very authentic voice, and his diary extracts are broken up at regular intervals by lists and fun facts, making this very accessible. A fun and satisfying story to make reading rock! ~Andrea Reece
Barrington Stoke is the foremost publisher of dyslexia friendly books and those for reluctant readers. Here on Lovereading4kids we are constantly selecting new titles and refreshing our special dyslexia friendly category.
Click here to view our current selection which is broken down by age range.
A fresh, infectious look at music in a new, chunky format from one of the best-selling children's comedy writers in the UK, perfect for fans of Tom Gates and World of Norm.
Darren is going to be the best rock guitarist ever - just as soon as he learns how to play the guitar...His dad says he can have an electric guitar for his birthday, but he has to solve his dad's puzzles first! Fantastic new edition of a popular title.
Jonathan Meres was born in Nottingham and spent many years sailing the seven seas as a merchant seaman. He gave it up to be a rock star but ended up being an ice cream van driver and comedian instead. As a comedian he won the Time Out award and in the '90s was nominated for the Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival. As a writer he is best known for being the author of over 30 books for children and in particular his bestselling, award-winning series, The World Of Norm, with over 800,000 copies sold in UK. He has also been a World Book Day Author. Jonathan lives in Edinburgh with his wife and children.